The present invention is related to a compact air purifier which is ideally suited for residential applications. More specifically, the present invention is related to an improved configuration for a compact bioreactor for purifying air passing there through.
Air purifiers are typically designed with a flow-through chamber wherein biocatalyst are on the interior surfaces of the bioreactor. The biocatalyst converts contaminants flowing in a medium, preferably water, into another material. The conversion can be by oxidation or other methods wherein the contaminant is preferably converted from a toxic, or undesirable, material into a non-toxic or desirable material.
Due to the desire for a high surface area the art has evolved towards spiral reactors as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,916,630 to Sofer, or U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,302 to Goldberg et al. both of which are incorporated herein by reference. Those of skill in the art have optimized the spiral design to the extent that they are highly efficient and this configuration now represents what is considered to be the state of the art in flow through reactor design.
Unfortunately, spiral designs have a limited volume capability and are limited by slip-streams in the flow which limit effective interactions between contaminant and catalyst. Other designs, which afford high volume, virtually always have limited functionality with regards to the amount of material converted in the reactor.
Those of skill in the art have therefore been limited to either an efficient reactor or a high volume reactor with the only option there between being multiple parallel reactors. None of these options are conducive to a compact design as would be desired in residential applications.
The present invention provides a reactor design which affords high volume throughput in a compact design with excellent reactivity between biocatalyst and contaminant.